


Becoming Six

by PrincessKey



Category: Little Nightmares (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Dark Magic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Murder, Pre-Canon, Six was an innocent little gremlin, before she became a nightmare
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-20
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-24 06:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30068283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessKey/pseuds/PrincessKey
Summary: Before she devoured the Lady of the Maw, before she escaped the dreaded Nest, before she was taken by the Thin Man…before she was forced to watch herself throw Mono into the abyss, she was just an innocent little girl with friends and a music box looking for freedom. But everything in this world comes at a price.This is the story of how she became Six.
Relationships: Mono & Six (Little Nightmares), Shadow Six & Six (Little Nightmares), Six & Original Character(s), The Lady & Six (Little Nightmares)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	Becoming Six

Six has been called many things in the short time that she has lived: heartless, cruel, monster, gremlin, and among other things children her age shouldn’t hear. Her personal favorite was the one her first caretaker liked to call her: A little nightmare.

The names weren’t given without reason. She will not deny that she can be vicious and bloodthirsty. She would gladly kill without hesitation or remorse. In this world that they lived in, sometime you need a little evil to do a lot of good. But even someone like her had standards. She didn’t just go around killing people at random. Only those who had wronged her were worthy of her wrath.

Like that girl from the Nest, whose yellow raincoat had washed ashore to the Pale City, whose coat she – _it_ – now wore. The irony was not lost onto her.

She remembered when they worked together to escape the Butler of the Nest. They helped each other get through the gates and, for one brief moment, she stupidly believed she had a friend in this world. They kept running, running until her legs gave out and she collapsed on the ground. The girl in the yellow raincoat could’ve helped her. They were far away from the Butler enough that she could’ve taken her hand, pulled Six to her feet, and could’ve escaped together.

But she didn’t. She just kept running, running into the garden shed. Worst of all, she locked Six out, even as her tiny fists pounded the door, pleading for the girl to let her in. But Six's cries went ignored. She was abandoned, left to fend for herself.

She saw her again, only minutes later, while the girl was fleeing from the Pretender. When Six fell from the cliff’s edge, the girl knocked down a tree for her to land on so that she would not plummet into the jagged rocks below. For that reason alone, Six helped her by crushing the Pretender with a large boulder. Not that it did any good. The Pretender survived and they both fell into the ocean below, drowning. An unremarkable end. But Six shed no tears for the girl as she climbed aboard the raft, watching the yellow raincoat float away to parts unknown, never realizing that she would wear it herself many months later….

Then there were the Bullies of the school. They all deserved to die.

She can still hear their annoying laughter in her ears. How they trapped her companion in that locker and ganged up on her, five-to-one. Six fought back, of course, but they fought dirty. Her memory of the capture is still foggy; or perhaps Six just forced herself to forget her hour of weakness. Because the next thing she knew, she was hitting her head on the hard tile of the bathroom floor, struggling not to blackout.

So the next time she saw one of those giggling monstrosities, she did not hesitate to jump it. She shoved it to the ground and slammed its head on the hardwood floor again, and again, and again until she heard the satisfying _smash_ of broken porcelain. It felt…cathartic.

She remembered the way her companion stared at Six, his expression masked by that dumb paper bag of his, but he said nothing and moved on.

And the Thin Man – Six's only regret is that _she_ wasn’t the one who had a hand in killing him.

Long before they arrived in the Pale City, the Thin Man had taken control of everyone, using his screens to distort the entire population. Their faces were melted beyond recognition, staring blinding at the fuzzy channels like a lifeline. Six remembered watching the bodies drop of the buildings. No doubt the Thin Man commanded them to do it, for whatever reason escaped her. The entire city was littered with empty clothes as well, all of which she assumed were left behind when the viewer had completely rotted away.

Truthfully, she didn’t care what the Thin Man did to the viewers – they were all better off dead as far as Six was concerned. But she couldn’t run the risk of that eventually happening to her one day, which is the only reason why she ventured out on this suicidal quest with some random boy she only just met in a basement. Executing a potential threat – that was a key rule in survival, one Six took very seriously.

But when the Thin Man came, she had foolishly let her guard down. She was too busy worrying over my traveling partner that she ignored all her instincts and stayed by his side instead of running away. Her partner had gotten ahead of her and escaped…. Six was not so fortunate.

She could remember the Thin Man twisting her body, watching her writhe in pain as Six's limbs were distorted and her sense of self eroded. She had become a monster worse than any she had encountered before – one that had no control over itself and acted only on baser instinct. She had the sense that the Thin Man enjoyed watching Six suffer, like she had wronged him somehow.

The only thing that calmed her was the music box. Even in her distorted form, the music box was still the most important thing to Six. Its melody took her back to a happier time. Before she understood just how cruel the world really was. A time when she was living in her own happy little bubble, living her days in peace and cheer with her closest friends….

Before _she_ gave her that cursed name.

Then her music box broke. Six remembered being angry. Why? Why would someone deliberately take away her happiness? Hasn't she already suffered enough? Why couldn’t they let her have this _one – little – **thing?!**_ But the music box did break, despite her rage, for it was the only way. There was only person who cared enough to save a monster like her.

Mono….

In a world where everything tried to kill you, he was a strange exception.

He was unnaturally kind, going as far as to trust a complete stranger without asking for anything in return. Naturally, Six initially thought he was plotting to use her like the girl in yellow had done and kept her distance. It was safer than blindly trusting someone – a hard lesson she learned from the Nest.

It was surprising, then, that he had come back for her after she had been taken at the school. She can confidently say that if it were the other way around, she would’ve left him to die. But that wasn’t Mono. He fought his way to save her, and in that moment, Six knew that he would do it all over again without hesitation. And he did, really, when she had been taken by the Thin Man.

That was likely the first time she and Mono had become real friends.

Mono had bravery in spades, but he was kind to a fault. Almost naively so. He preferred not to kill unless he had no other choice, whereas Six chose to kill before they became a threat in the future.

They had murdered the Hunter together with his own shotgun, but Mono had been visibly shaken after that. He had told her once that he had spared one of the Bullies tethered on a leash, justifying that it wasn’t a threat. Even when they had trapped the Doctor in the incinerator, he chose not to pull the switch and simply led her to the elevator. Personally, Six would’ve enjoyed the warmth from the fire.

Yes, Mono was kind, brave, and loyal. He had faced the Thin Man in a final battle to the death and ventured recklessly through the labyrinth of the Transmission Tower solely to rescue her. He had even risked life and limb staring down her monstrous form and cleverly used the Tower's strange portals to break the music box that bound her. And with a final swing of the axe, she had been set free….

Or so she thought.

When her head had cleared of the haze, she realized that she was in her naturally small form. Only…her hands dark…translucent…and fuzzy. Like static. Like those strange glitches them kept finding all over the place. And when Six looked up, her worst fears were confirmed:

Her body – her physical body – was standing feet away from her. Something had gone wrong. Somehow, her consciousness had been ripped from her body. This… _thing_ was devoid of all feeling, its eyes hollow, lifeless…empty.

Then the Transmission Tower started to collapse. Her empty shell ran away instinctively; Six was forced to follow, bound to its shadow. She looked back as Mono struggled to chase them, the walls oozing with disgusting, undulating flesh, eyeballs following their every move. It chased them through the collapsing halls, howling like a wounded animal.

Her body had made it to the entrance when the bridge collapsed behind them. Mono jumped the gap like he had dozens of times in their quest, never pausing when he saw her body hold out its hand.

Her body grabbed Mono. For a moment, Six had hoped, prayed even, that it would pull him up. That they could finally leave this nightmare together and they could be happy. _She_ could finally be happy again.

And then…it dropped him.

The thing inside her body threw her hands back without care or remorse, watching Mono disappear into the darkness with no trace of emotion. Even in her glitchy form, Six felt something cold slide down her left cheek while an unfamiliar sensation twisted like a knife in her chest.

It had been years since she had genuinely cried.

The thing possessing her body walked out of the tower without looking back. The Flesh did not chase after them – it had already gotten what it wanted.

And that’s what led them here: a dingy living room somewhere in the city.

The thing had fell through the fuzzy screen gracelessly, unused to it new acquirement, but it would learn eventually. Six, meanwhile, could only watch like a helpless bystander as her own body rose against her wishes, brushing itself off like it had come from a nice little jaunt through the park.

And then it turned its head and stared. Directly at her.

That’s when she realized it could see her. It had taken her body and knew she was there, helpless to do anything about it. It taunted her with its silent stare. She suspected it was looking for a reaction. After all, it had heartlessly dropped her only friend in the dark abyss, never to be seen again.

But it was wrong; Six knew that with absolute confidence. There was no way that Mono was gone; they had survived too much to just up and die in a pathetic way. No, Six thought, shaking her head. He was still alive, just trapped inside the tower like the Thin Man before him. If she could get to him, maybe – just maybe – she could save him, just like he saved her (with less than desirable results, admittedly.)

But how would she go about it, she asked herself? As it stood, she was merely an observer of her own body. In her current state, she couldn’t wrest back control. Not while the two of them were divided like this.

But there had to be a way. Some power like the Thin Man’s that could force them to be rejoined and then Six could fight back to take what is hers. But with the Thin Man dead, who was left that could provide such power?

Unfortunately, she didn’t have to think long for that answer. There was one person that could help. Six swore that she would never return to that place as long as she lived, but desperate times called for desperate measures. The question was, how could she get her body to where it needed to be?

It seemed like Benzaiten favored her for a change as her body was overcome with an otherworldly hunger. Their separation must have caused some kind of harmful side effect. And there just so happen to be a flyer advertising the very place they needed to go lying on the floor.

She might not be able to control her body, but she could certainly point it in the right direction. Even if it was the last place she wanted to be, she had no other choice. This was the only route forward.

She was going home, back to the Maw.

**Author's Note:**

> Little Nightmares II is confirmed to be a prequel to Little Nightmares 1, but I personally believe Very Little Nightmares takes place before 2. My theory is that Six rode the raft to the wildness, where she got caught by the Hunter. And the protagonists coat got washed up in the Pale City and found its way to the shop. The reason Six chose the raincoat out of everything there was because it reminded her of the Nest and took it as a personal reminder of what happened.
> 
> Or at least that’s my theory. What do you think?


End file.
